WMF Steve Gaudet

Go to 15:25 to see Keith Barry's version of the spike trick.



Alright, now that you've see the trick, watch this:



A copycat! His name: The Amazing Raven, a performer who's real name is Stephen Robert John Gaudet. He's a tour manager of a hypnotist called Reveen. So you would think that he knows about not taking other people's material. If you look at some other acts of his, you'll notice that nothing really is his own. You will see a lot of The (not so) Amazing Kreskin bleed through as well as some other well known mentalists.

Watch him fuck up the Magic Square by clicking here. In case you don't know what was supposed to happen. Within 60 seconds he was supposed to fill in the numbers in a grid. I do a Magic Square in my show. 23 seconds. So 60 seconds is more than enough not have an error. But he had an error. He was not able to subtract 20 from the target number. So naturally he fucks up. And needs another 60 seconds to get himself back on track. The only redeeming thing about that performance is his assistant Whitly holding the board that he's writing on. Man, she is a piece of eye candy,,,, Kudos! If you clicked the above link you can see the entire show. And I dare you to watch this in one go. You cannot.

These things happen if you don't practise and rehearse. Which is what I accuse Steve of!

His production quality is good. Too good actually as all the screen, the music and the light makes it appear that Steve Gaudet is a professional. He clearly is not... or should not be. He maybe a wonderful human being, he maybe a great tour manager, but an even decent mentalist he is not,

Here is another video. Him doing hypnosis. The guy is clearly a stooge.This is clear to even the most brain dead spectator. Steve Gaudet make is look like he is able to hypnotise a random guy into becoming a juggler. Which he does. Then the stooge juggles, way too good to be believable. With knives!

Is there any need to be that "false"? He does some routines that I cannot place. But I have a hard time believing that he came up with any presentation by himself. Except maybe that atrocity of a hybrid monster that is Svengali and Tossed Out Deck. Stealing material, sucking at basic performance skills and failing to understand mentalism, as the limits of believability were clearly broken, make me announce the following. Steve Gaudet, you are this weeks magic failure.

But in order to be more on the constructive side of things, here are some pointers.

Put your spin on the classic routines! Do not take other people's work and sell it as your own! There are a few simple steps to take in order to create you own presentation. Start with a premise on why you are able to do what you can do! If you solved that the rest should get worked out.

Rehearse your material! This means (among other things) going through the motions so often, that you can do it effortlessly.

If you wanna be a mentalist, make sure you are believable. If you cannot figure out what feels real and what clearly is not, then you should get the help of those who can differentiate. Those usually are other mentalists,but they wont help you as you are stealing their material. But a good producer can do the same. Get help!

Has the Shwood lost his focus?

Short answer: It seems so!

Long answer: Brian Brushwood has long been of a thorn in magic. His heart may be in the right place, but his actions are not helping to get that message across. I'm talking about his long running YouTube series Scam School. The premise of that show is to "scam" other people into buying you a drink. Naturally he covers magic on that show. And exposes it. Most of it is harmless. But once in a while he fucks up. The exposure of the Invisible Deck comes to mind.



But now he's "teaching" a retention vanish of a coin. It absolutely is exposure and NOT a scam to get a beer. In fact that little premise of the show is completely omitted this time. It would have led to a scam if a duplicate coin was loaded under the spectators drink. And the bet would be that "if I can get the coin under your drink without you and me touching the drink, I get that drink that you are having."

Then doing the NOT a vanish but a switch for a transparent plastic disc which is then dropped into the spectators drink. He looks inside, it looks like the coin is in the beer. But a little magic and everything is as it should be. That would be a scam.

It looks like Brian has lost the focus on what to do.

Brian! Get help! Get a research team! A creative team!

Connecting the tissue! Part 4 of 6

This is a continuation of this

Have a rewarding running trick!

Similar to a running gag in a comedy show a running trick is a trick is about repetition. There are two main ways of doing it. The first one is to attempt a certain trick over and over again, but failing. The Second one is to repeat a minor trick over and over until it becomes increasingly better and better.

Both ways need a rewarding finish. All this interluding stuff needs to add up to something.

Here is an example for the first way. You declare to perform the famous cut and restored rope. You show the rope, you cut it and then comment "This is the easy part. The next part.... well I'm working on it." Then you toss the ropes in a bag next to you.
Later you get out another piece of rope and cut it, this time you do a knot to get them back together and toss the bundle in the bag.
A few tricks later you attempt it again, Cut the rope, it is then visually restored but just as you take your applause the rope breaks again. You toss the pieces in the bag.
And finally you attempt it again, you cut and restore the rope. Being confident you take the bag, rip it open and from it all the pieces have become one long rope. Knowing the magic apparatus out there will make you understand that this routine is a self worker.

Here is an example for the second way. You borrow a 10 dollar note from one spectator and then another 10 dollar note from another spectator. Fold both together, then unfold, both have fused into a 20 dollar bill. So far the setup.... now you show two little bags, one red, the other one blue. "I'm gonna place the bill into one of the bags, then the first guy gets to guess where the bill is. If he's right, he gets to keep the bill. If he's wrong the game continues." Of course the spectator guesses wrong.
You do your next trick and after that you come back to the bills. "Now it's the second guys turn, red or blue? It was in the red one, maybe I put it there again, but I wouldn't be so stupid would I?" So he guesses and is wrong.... This can go on an on. Now for the finish.... "I'll make it easier." Now the twenty is openly placed into the blue bag. "You both get to choose. You can either trust me and take the blue bag or mistrust me and choose the red one. But whatever you get, the other guy gets the other bag." The choice is made and both open their bags at the same time. Both find nothing but their 10 dollar notes. Methodwise a TT gets your far ahead.

A running trick doesn't connect the tricks, but gives the impression to do so. It creates the illusion of a well thought out show. Try it, if you have nothing else.

The above image shows German magician Kalanag doing the Water from India running gag. The rewarding finish is that the bucket that supposedly holds all the produced water is dumped out and a rain of confetti goes airborne.

Connecting the tissue! Part 3 of 6

This is a continuation of yesterdays post, It all starts here.

Use the same props over again!

A really simple way to make your string of tricks feel connected is to reuse your props. As simple as this maybe I've seen magicians putting away the cards, getting out some coins, putting away the coins getting out a different deck of cards. It blows my mind. Switching decks.... sure thing, if it is not obvious. Best would be to do your card trick, do your deck switch (if you have to) as you are getting out the coins, then placing the deck to the side. After the coin trick you pocket your coins and continue with the "same" deck of cards.

Here is another example. The magic wand. The magic wand is more than a bit of motivation and more than a power claim. It can connect the tricks.

Here is an example from my repertoire. I do coin tricks, card tricks, using a lighter for a bill change a key and other stuff. Later in the show I do a trick with "random" objects. I ask my audience for stuff and I get out my lighter, my coins, the key and a single playing card. The audience has seen them, but now they are back. It even reminds them of the tricks they have seen 30 minutes ago. The reintroduction of the props for a different purpose connects the tricks in a subtle way.

This is no hard science. This is a simple devide that is underexplored. Try using it!

Please don't confuse this with reusing the same method or the same gimmick all over again. That is entirely different.

Connecting the Tissue! Part 2 of 6

This is a continuation of yesterdays post, either below this one or here.

Foreshadow the end!

The ending is what people will remember most in a show. So the ending needs to be special. Aside from being the strongest trick you do it needs to feel like a rewarding ending. One technique to do that is to foreshadow the end. You basically tell your audience what is going to happen, but not right on the nose but indirectly.

Here is an example from my repertoire. "I love old magic books. You find so many cool tricks in there that unfortunately you cannot do anymore. In one of the tricks - for example - a gentleman's handkerchief was borrowed. Usually his initials where sewn into one of the four corners. That was then stuffed into a pistol and then shot across the stage into a small locked box or some other impossible place. Nowadays nobody has a handkerchief with the initials sewn in. And a loaded pistol... the laws have changed. But I found an old magic trick that I can do...." 

Then I proceed to do that other trick. But in that story I have put in a few thing. First something about me, digging into old literature making me a bit more interesting, also answering the common question where to learn magic. Also it tells them something about my regret of not being able to perform such a cool sounding trick which pays off, because I just foreshadowed the end. 

My last trick of the show indeed is "Silk to apple" There a silk cloth is being signed then the silk cloth in being stuffed into a Nerf Gun and being shot across the room into an apple. 

So when this happens near the end, People get excited as they recall me telling the story about my regret of not being able to do the trick. It feels wonderful in the brain. People feels smart about being able to pick that up and it connects the show. The ending trick is not just a stand alone trick anymore. It feels like all has been building up to that. The ending feels rewarding and it tells people that it really is the end.

Of course you can foreshadow a lot of things in your show. But if you use that technique too much in becomes "unrewarding". However If you decide not to use this as a device to enhance your ending, because you may feel that your ending is strong enough I urge you to try it somewhere else in your act. Sometimes a natural spectator's response will help you greatly. Like you borrow a ring and you want to make it appear in a locked box. You do your magic method business, hand out the box and all you need to do is to make that "ring" disappear. But right before you do that the spectator says "If you can make my ring appear in the box that I'm holding, that would be a great trick."

This happened to me more than one time and it is a great moment. "Yeah that would be a great trick.... and I'm sure you all, but especially you would go crazy and applaud like there is no tomorrow.... but I'm not that good!" Basically unbeknownst to the spectator he did the foreshadowing him-/herself. I don't need to tell you how to go from here.

More tomorrow...

Connecting the tissue! Part 1 of 6

When you create a show, the least you can do is to string your tricks together, one following the next. The tricks get stronger and stronger and the strongest one is the one you end your show with.

It's a no fail scenario based on the dramatic device of raising the stakes. But a boring one.

You have to create the impression of a show that is more than that. Having created and performing five 90 minute shows I have a few tips for you.

Create loose ends!

People love it, when things come together and hate it when things are left open. In magic you can use that to great dramatic effect. 

In a simple mind reading routine for instance you can write down a city, lay down the piece of paper and then have a city named.... you nod and address the next spectator to think of an animal. You write down the supposed animal and lay down the piece of paper on the table. So far you smell the one ahead nature. You do that as often as you like, but in the end you don't have somebody think of something. Instead you are getting a psychic impression. You write that down and look at the paper. You shake your head in disbelieve saying "Nope, that doesn't make any sense!" and then place that piece of paper far away but still in view. Now you reveal the remain pieces of paper to be a correct and be done with the trick.....

Surly people are interested in the last piece of paper that you lay down. It is a loose end. It feels unresolved. Two or three tricks later something might go wrong. Seriously wrong. Maybe a freely named card was not what you wrote down on your giant prediction banner, but instead the King of Spades is named. Now you return to that piece of paper you left on the table earlier. You remember it suddenly... "Yes, now it makes sense!" Have a spectator pick it up and read it. It says "Sorry about the wrong prediction, of course it was the King of Spades.

Can you see how this plays much bigger that the two tricks just strung together. They are connected. The show feels connected.

More tomorrow...

Hello There!

Two months of not posting... such a dick move of mine! I'm such an asshole...!

Now that I got that out of the way; How are you guys? I've been busy. The development for the new show is done (the main reason for me not posting btw) and the show is in rehearsing stage. 24th of April is the first show.

How many card tricks do you do compared to the many you know? My guess is that you do about 2-3 per show of a standing repertoire of 5-6 out of a pool of about 40 card tricks. If that is the case raise your hand.

To all of the others... Stop buying card tricks!

Check out this 99 cent trick being sold on T11's Wire!...



well more of a technique in a project that has been years in the making. At least according to the 20-year-old creator John Bendewald. Is this supposed to be a convincing Second Deal? It doesn't even look like the top card is being taken at all. The fingers don't even give an indication they they are supposed to take the top card. The right hand thumb goes clearly under the top card which has weirdly been angled off from the deck.

If it sounds like I'm being over analytical, that is because I am. The Second Deal is one of those techniques, that if you do it well you can do it under scrutiny. If you suck at it, (like me) you better need a good reality outside of the move misdirecting from the move.

For instance. You just made the four aces appear by changing a single card into the four aces. The reality is different. Only three aces are there but thanks to Alex Elmsley it looks like four. But you planned ahead the missing ace is on top of the deck.
      So you drop the four card packet on the deck and then deal them out. The fourth card is the X card and the fifth card the last ace. So I can deal out three aces regularly giving me enough cover to do the one Second Deal.

Also the main idea has been done better before. Check out Card College and hell, even The Expert at the Card Table will do!

The magic bar!

René Lavand has died. The Magic world is in imminent peril to dropping the bar he's raised. We have lost another great one. Also Dean Dill. What a tragic weekend for magic kind. Both were respectable performers and have pushed the magic art. One more so than the other.

But now that the bar has been lowered again, this is totally acceptable again:



Help Us!!!

Harry Potter

What's up with

Magicians on video, breathing heavily? Like seriously.... almost as if they have asthma and they ran five miles. Not talking about fat people. I know why they are breathing so loudly, but skinny magicians.

Spot the Moment

The name of the performer escapes me, but he does all sorts of demo shit. And you can tell that he's got the chops, so demoing a cheap self working trick is a downgrade in a humiliating kind of way.

Take a look at the following video. Skip to the very end, and you see what happens after the demo. You can see his fake smile fading and his true disgust comes through. You can actually see the moment his heart breaks as he realizes what sad, sad thing he's done.

Looking for a Change Bag?

"Looking for a Change Bag? Everybody needs a Change Bag! It's not just a great trick, it's a necessity in magic!"



Now I'm convinced, I need a Change Bag. A giant one! This is big enough to put a small person in. Imagine the possibilities... A somewhat reversed quickchange....

Just have two little people, One already in the Change Bag wearing the same clothes as the other little person who is assisting you all the time. Then for the finale, the little person climbs inside and voila the little person changes. Not the clothes but the person. This is seriously good material!

Stock Mentalist lies about Poll!

I love it when things change and you have to rethink your opinion over and over. Keeps you aware of your own actions.

Turns out I was wrong about a few things about the recent Paul Stockman issue. He did won the award for Best Mentalist/International Psychological Entertainer of the year.

Just kidding, not really? But there is some truth in that statement. SOME!

The UK Magic Magazine "Magicseen Magazine" did have a poll. The readers could vote by email. One if the categories was "Best Mentalist 2012". Paul Stockman got first place at that poll. Not an award at all, and certainly not for Best Mentalist/International Psychological Entertainer of the year.

So you see, he changed a few things. First he changed it to an award and then he changed the entire name of the thing. He also claims that "Celebrities, The General Public and Paul's peers voted to put him at the top." I don't think that any celebrities voted in that email voting. I may be wrong, but chances are slim.

There is bending the truth and there is lying. Paul Stockman took the low route and lied. And that is not acceptable in advertisement as it does two things. It discredits the performer but also ruins the public image of magic even more. The sad thing: Paul Stockman had something (a small thing) and he fucked it up by exaggerating it to the point it became a lie.

It's even kind of ironic how Paul Stockman uses stock photos of the Las Vegas sign as a background for himself. Stock mentalist comes to mind!

He also removed any mentioning/hinting that he ever performed for Ricky Gervais or Simon Cowell. Both of them hate magicians BTW. If he indeed performed for them, then he could have left the statements on his website. That is indicating that he indeed lied about ever performing for them. To his credit, he never explicitly said he did perform for them, but he strongly hinted at it.

Kinda fast reaction!

There are three kinds of reactions whenever I do a WMF post. The most common one is to ignore me. And that works out for most performers. The second one is asking me if can take it down asap. Third would be going all ape shit and threatening me with lawyers and/or doing so. (e.g. Jack Moyer and "he who shall not be named" but his names sounds a lot like Hames L Dlark)

Guess what category Paul Stockman belongs to? Sorry to disappoint, but he simply asked me to take it down as some of what I claim is not true. I replied to further know what part is not true, to which he didn't respond, but instead stated that he wishes my post to be removed, as he did not give permission to publish it in the first place. Naturally I told him that I am aware that my post didn't require his permission and that again I am willing to hear his side of the story. Then he finally opened up a bit.

Before all that I had a talk with my girlfriend about it and we wondered a bit about a possible reaction. We thought he cannot refuse the fact that the pictures are faked, but he will probably argue that he indeed worked for some celebrities and that no picture was taken at that time, and that the statutes worked like a dummy in the celebrities stead.

And guess what. Pretty much that was his argument.

Now let's give him the benefit of a doubt and let all he is saying be true. That still is bad, bad practice. A practice not worthy of a successful performer of 15 years of experience.

He has taken down the relevant images. Which was the point of the post. So the prior post is scheduled to get unpublished in a few days.

WMF Paul Stockman

UK magician Paul Stockman may be not of the brightest lights among the magic community. But he has balls. Let me elaborate:. When it comes to advertisement you should not tell a lie. You may exaggerate a bit, but a lie is a big NO NO!

So what did he do you may ask? I'm getting to the point you impatient fan of the blog.

He basically took a few pictures of him an celebrities and put them on his website. So it seems.

In fact those pictures are fake.

Here is a picture of Tony Bennett and one of Sarah Michelle Geller. Both are wax figures and not real.

Paul Stockman took a picture while standing next to them. That in itself is not a pathetic thing. But to use those pictures in ones own advertisement is a low that I have not come across yet.




The following image is a screenshot from Paul's website.

You can clearly see the puppets there. The picture with Ricky Gervais (Spelled wrong on his website btw) is a great fabrication. And bad photoshop.

The original picture shows Ricky Gervais next to David Bowie. A facebook user placed them side by side:

The same dopey face you find in the picture with Simon Cowell.

Now I hear you say... .well, he at least doesn't say that he actually performed for these people. Well he says a lot of things on his website. One of the gems is this great line: "THE ONLY U.K PERFORMER TO SPECIALISE IN STAGE AND STAND UP PERFORMANCE." Oh really? The only one?

He also has a promo video. Around the 2:50 mark you will see this great image. The Headline reads: "Mentalist From U.K Performs for Tony Bennett in New York." Since the picture is a fabrication so I must assume the claim is a fabrication as well.

So I have to ask myself does a successful performer have to do this? A clear no is the answer.

In the news section of his website you can find this: "

PAUL WINS TOP AWARD
We are thrilled to announce that Paul has won the award for International Psychological
Entertainer of the year.
The Stockman camp is still celebrating after finding out the news that they beat
Derren Brown to the post by just a hand full of votes.
Celebrities, The General Public and Paul's peers voted to put him at the top."

Oh boy his is wrong on so many levels. You never put another performers name in your advertisement! (Which is the point of his website) You never put yourself above another performer in your advertisement! Also: The Award for International Psychological Entertainer of the Year? What award is that? I dare to assume that award is fake. Please correct me on that if I am wrong. Also, why didn't Derren Brown win that?

I take 3 of them!

This is truely exciting magic. Endless wonders. If the magic sparkling comes with the trick I'll take 3 of them. Imagine the possibilities. Three Tube Monte! Where is the little yellow hanky? After that the finish.... you pull tons of stuff from the tubes. Wow.... Even the creppy smile at the end of the video needs to be in everyone's show.

There is a metaphor in this somewhere!

The original Paddle Move

Lately I've been pissed off at people who truly believe an opinion is as worth as facts. As if they are equal.

I'm talking about magic. It was another magician's opinion that a large action covers a small one. While this is factually not true he created a trick which was utter garbage based on that.

His opinion was so much stronger than the fact that it did not fool so I had a discussion about it with him and it took me a while to understand that "the larger action covering the small action"-myth was the reason for his conviction.

So based on that myth he formed his opinion and stood by it in spite of contradicting evidence....

There is a metaphor in this somewhere!

Pocket This! by Christopher Congreave and Gary Jones

How about a DVD review for a change. I ordered a few magic things the other day. An this DVD was in there as a freebie. "Pocket This!" by Christopher Congreave and Gary Jones. Never heard of it. Apparently "Professional Card to Pocket Routines".

Really? Lets see!

At first I feared it is one of those DVD's were the emphasis is on non palming techniques. Oh no, turns out this is real world material. With actually skill required.

This first thing I noticed is that both performers obviously have a performing background and that both are annoying. In a UK way of annoying. Christopher Congreave more than Gary Jones. One has to get used to this constant making fun of the other person. But if you look past it and see the routines you are in for a pleasant surprise. Repeated Card to Pocket, Multiple Card to Pocket and Pocket to Pocket. A few things are rather weak, like the Two Card Transpo by Christopher Congreave. His approach and solution to the problem has probably been created and done by every magician who plays around palming cards.

It is hard to watch that DVD in one sitting, because of camera man who had a seizure or something. Constant zooming in and out, and tilting the camera. I had to reduce the size of the window on my PC as not to get motion sick. This is atrocious.

But back to the content. By far the best routine on the DVD is Gary Jones' Repeat Signed Card to Pocket. I have tried my own version of that, but failed as it never clicked with me. Gary's version solves a lot of problems I had while constructing a routine. In his version three cards are signed and then appear in different pockets. Instantly they jump back to the pockets. The method used is pretty efficient and the structure gets to the point quickly. In the end all of the cards end up in a wallet. Solid workable ending. You can clearly sense that this routine is road tested.

My own card to pocket is very, very standard. First the signed card goes a few times, then the deck. Not on that DVD.

So would I recommend this. Yes, to all that are real workers and can stand atrocious camera work, loud and heavy breathing and the UK performing style.

BTW. There is no footage of them performing for real people. If you are bothered by that "issue" you are not a real pro.

Of all the free magic stuff that comes to my house this was surprisingly good and I would probably have paid for it.

I'm actually interested in more stuff by Gary Jones in particular. Weird how he got on my radar.

A few stories from a working pro!

Here are a few things that happened to me during the last few days. All are magic related.

1. I was performing at a house. Two rather large dogs were part of the family. They were not in the room for the show. I understood why after the show. I was still in the room talking to the people (as I usually take some time to answer some of the usual question) as the dog were being allowed back in. Everyone was told that the dogs were being trained right now. And part of their training is to react to clapping. They are told to go to the person clapping. But if the are right next to the person clapping the dogs get confused and start barking. Well I was then asked to do one more trick. A moment I'm usually well prepared for, so I did my thing. Right after the trick the guests started clapping, and the dogs barking. I left asking myself who was better trained. The dogs that did the barking or the audience that did the clapping.

2. Yesterday I was asked to do ten minutes of material, then the next thing was about to start. So I prepared by setting up my rope and some quick mentalism bit. As I was walking on stage it dawned on me that those two things are not ten minutes. I needed like four more minutes. I felt like a beginner, but show was about to start I had to wing it. I gained a minute by doing a warm up with the people and then going into my rope routine. I'm so happy to be able to do most of my act on autopilot. So as I was doing all the patter and the motions my mind was racing to fill three more minutes. Wasn't there a deck of cards in my back pocket? I was saved.... yeah a card trick would do. Which one? Dunno.... guessed I'll figure it out as I went there. So I reached into my back pocket "And now what you have been waiting for.... a card trick" But there was no deck of cards. But a 10 Euro bill. Fuck! But people laughed as I raised the bill in the air automatically. "A card trick that I am willing to bet 10 Euros on!" What the hell was I saying? I reached in the other back pocket. The deck of cards was there.

Then I got a stroke... a stroke of brilliance.... Years ago I did that one card trick, which is actually more a lie detector plot. Basically someone picks a card and I ask them a few questions about the card. They can lie at any point or they can decide to tell me the truth about the card at any point. It was up to me to differentiate between truth or lie and then figure out the selection accordingly. It is an okay trick but it never felt like there are any stakes about it.... until that moment where I held up the bill.

Suddenly it was about something. About me losing maybe 10 Euros. Suddenly my "reading" of the spectator's reaction to my questions became much more interesting and meaningful. And who would have thought that I had to shorten the mind reading bit a little more to fit within the ten minutes I had. This routine is now a keeper. A card trick that plays big, has stakes and is a self worker.

3. Today I did my usual show in the theater. And as usual I handed out my cards, using the usual patter. "Make sure the cards are ordinary, in the end I want you to say that the magician did it, and not the cards"
And as usual I keep an eye on the people checking out the cards. And as usual as I ask them all to toss those cards pack on the table someone "hides" a card. It is amazing how "badly" people do that sort of steal. Even when my head is turned I see it. Like a little kid hiding something behind it's back. I wanted to go through my usual out in these cases of gathering up the cards, weighing them carefully and announcing that one card is missing, which gets a good reaction. But this time I even saw the face of the card. I knew it was the 10 of Spades, but she thought I didn't even know that she had a card. So I did my weighing, "something is off" as I spread the cards face up on the table. "Look at that the 10 of Spades is missing" I looked around the table base, as it was possible that the card may have fallen down there as peopled tossed the cards on the table. She used that little time frame I gave her and secretly tossed the card back on the table. "Never mind, there it is."

I think I played that part very well. I could tell that people thought that I thought I made a mistake. But they clearly saw the card being tossed back on the table by the spectator. So my noticing of the missing 10 of Spades must have looked to them like a genuine skill.

At least I like to think so.

Nothing to gain!

If you ask a layperson to name a few famous magicians certain names come up more often than others. Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Roy Walton, Tommy Wonder and Michael Ammar usually are not mentioned. Instead we have:

• David Copperfield
• Siegfried and Roy
• David Blaine
• Dynamo
• Criss Angel
• The Masked Magician
• Houdini
• Gandalf
• Dumbledore

All of these magicians have one thing in common.

THEY HAVE CONTRIBUTED LITTLE TO NOTHING TO THE MAGIC COMMUNITY!

Knowing that little bit should help you understand, why releasing magic is not a good way to get famous.

Happy New Year

I got an email.... "Hey cocksucker, have you died?"

The simple answer: Yes, yes I have. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, then Hades said "Καλημέρα!". Naturally I didn't get that. But he showed me around. I saw the pool area, the beer volcano and the true Magic Castle. Dai Vernon sat in the corner as usual ranting about magicians. Larry Jennings was drunk and his palm flashed.

I was confused. Hades showed me more. I wondered why Hades had red skin and horns on his head. Eventually we went past a picturesque mountainside. There was a giant gap in the side of the mountain. From that gap screams were heard. I demanded to see what was going on there. Hades hesitated and showed me anyway. Burning people being drowned in acid.... I looked at Hades. He shrug his shoulders. "I don't know..." he said "...these are catholics, they want it that way."

Then I woke up and it was 2015. Holy Shit.

The last few month of 2014 were busy, really busy for me, so blogging took a back seat.

So what is the news?

Dean Dill needs money for cancer treatment. That sucks. Both that he has cancer and that he needs money to treat it. The later would be unheard of here in Germany, where we have public health care. Still don't know why so many Americans are against it.

But there are countries where you are worse off being a magician.

Apparently a magician got beheaded by ISIS, you know that wacky little interest group with the mental stability of a three-year-old. I don't know if this is true, "The Mirror" has a bad report card when it comes to the validity of their articles. They even shoehorned Dynamo into the article leading to a possible misinterpretation, that maybe Dynamo was involved. I cannot tell if it was intentional or not.

Speaking of Dynamo...

...he has now found his way to the penguin lecture crowd. Dan Harlan who hosted that event must have been amused how this likable man shows off his pathetic card skill. Nothing shows more of his dilettantism than a live performance. Turning his unbelievable TV shit into a farce and showing the true hypocrisy.

I think 2015 has a lot to offer.